Chapter 5

Northwest Nazarene College (1916-1926)

A New School in Nampa, Idaho

The Shoshoni tribe called their homeland "Ee-dah-how." Their Native American language painted in words the view from the valley between the Wasatch and Owahee mountain ranges. "EE" means "coming down"; "DAH" means "sun or mountain"; and "HOW" denotes a sense of surprise similar to the English exclamation point. The Anglicized form "Idaho" could also be translated as "Look! The sun coming down the mountain!" The Shoshoni used the expression to greet the new morning much like the phrase "Rise and shine!" In a similar fashion, a new day was about to dawn for Nazarene higher education along the Snake River valley in southwestern Idaho.[200] The story began with a lay person.

Eugene Emerson entered the lumber business in Idaho. In the midst of a successful enterprise, he also underwent a profound religious experience in a gathering of holiness people. From that point, Emerson desired a build a place for his children to be educated in a social atmosphere that represented the values of pious Christians. Emerson's initiative and investment in a new school in Nampa, Idaho evolved into Northwest Nazarene College (NNC).[201]

On December 26, 1913, Emerson and other Nazarene laypeople signed the charter for the Idaho Holiness School.[202] The school met in a modest wood-frame building on Fifteenth Avenue and Sixth Street in Nampa. It became known as the "house for God" that Emerson built. A writer in The Oasis, a NNC student yearbook, noted, "We praise God for the real sanctified men and women who are willing to lay down their lives in order that boys and girls may be fitted to carry the story of Christ to the uttermost parts of the earth."[203] An oil and canvas painting displayed in the campus library depicts these pioneering families, though some of the faces cannot be identified as those originally involved in starting the school.

The school was envisioned from the beginning as a grammar school for the children of families interested in a Christian education from the perspective of the holiness tradition.[204] John Riley quotes from an article from the Nampa Leader-Herald, August 5, 1913 about the opening of the new school:

The college, although under the direction of the Nazarene Church, will be open to all denominations. It will commence with teaching only practical academic courses as are taught in the public schools, except that it will teach the Bible. Later it will develop into college work with a view toward enlarging into a college of recognized standing.[205]

That is exactly what happened once Emerson asked H. Orton Wiley to become president of this fledgling school situated among the sagebrush.

A New President for the School in Nampa

After graduating from the Pacific School of Theology (PST) in May 1917, Wiley began his presidency full-time. Wiley challenged himself in an intellectually and theologically diverse environment while in Berkeley in order to complete a master's degree in sacred theology from PST. He also met his future Vice-President-Olive Winchester, also a student at PST. In Nampa, Idaho, Wiley discovered a college willing to give him the title of President with all of its responsibilities and burdens.

Wiley invited Seth Rees, Wiley's ally in Pasadena, to speak at a series of camp meetings during Wiley's first semester at NNC. Rees was still at the center of the controversy in Pasadena in which the University Church was disbanded and separated from the Nazarene University.[206] The disruption at Pasadena also challenged the authority of the general superintendents to disband local churches. The camp meeting in Nampa consisted of an extended period of revival meetings led by Rees who was preaching daily followed by a closing address by General Superintendent H. F. Reynolds.[207] Although Reynolds was wary about speaking at the same event as Rees, since the controversy was still thick in the air, he nevertheless decided to speak at the meetings.

This camp meeting was the capstone of Wiley's attempt to bring reconciliation within the denomination over the Seth Rees affair. Wiley had built a network of support for Rees at the 1917 District Assembly in Nampa during the previous summer. Wiley's attempt at reconciliation encouraged a cautious constituency to continue to support the denomination and the fledgling college in Nampa. Rees, however, left the Church of the Nazarene to begin another church that grew into the denomination known as the Pilgrim Holiness Church. Wiley's attempt to bring healing and draw support from Nazarenes in the Northwest helped him during a difficult ten-year tenure as NNC struggled financially while it grew spiritually and educationally.

"Building a College Alone for Jesus"

A grammar school and Bible college comprised the core of the school when Wiley arrived in Nampa. Wiley sought to build a solid liberal arts curriculum. He initiated the process of changing the name to Northwest Nazarene College and incorporated a broad range of liberal arts courses including the sciences.[208] Wiley also hoped to build a campus with California Spanish architecture similar to the campus of Stanford University.[209] The challenges were great for Wiley at NNC, but he remained undaunted. A year before beginning at Nampa, Wiley wrote, "I am more than ever convinced that it is possible to have higher institutions of learning without any diminution of spiritual life and power."[210] One of Wiley's closest associates in Nampa wrote an inspirational song used in early fundraising campaigns. It seemed to mirror Wiley's experience in trying to build a college among the sagebrush of southwestern Idaho. N.B. Herrell wrote (and usually led the singing for) the following chorus:

Building a college alone for Jesus,

Building a college alone for Jesus,

Where heavenly fire may fall

In classrooms and in halls,

Building a college alone for Jesus.[211]

Wiley built a base of financial support through fundraising campaigns while encouraging a notion that the college had a spiritual as well as educational basis for its existence.

Creating a Spiritual Environment

Wiley was known for balancing intellectual formalities with emotional religious practice.[212] The educational environment Wiley wanted to create at Nampa tended toward an orderly and tempered rather than spastic, overly emotional religion. Price wrote that the Rees' supporters, who sought emotionally charged religious practices, followed Wiley to Nampa after the crisis in Pasadena. Wiley allied himself with Rees based on the implications involving church polity, and not from an allegiance about worship styles. At times, zealous students interrupted classroom lectures with prayer and shouting. Wiley attempted to intervene on behalf of irritated faculty members and students. Wiley's orderly approach to their religious fervor eventually led the faculty and students taking these emotionally charged religious practices to the other denominations.[213] Wiley simply desired that these people pray aloud in sequence and not all at once-to maintain order in their worship in chapel, classroom, or dormitory.[214] Wiley acknowledged later that the reputation of the Church of the Nazarene tended to be "highly emotional."[215] Prescott Beals, a 1919 graduate, remembered Wiley's influence mainly in chapel services, as well as the classroom:

He led the chapel services, and he somehow or other had the knack of holding things steady-staying away from fanaticism on the one hand and cold formality on the other.[in] time of intense spiritual revival.he held to the middle of the road.[216]

For Wiley, spirituality gained an important role in education but not as a replacement for higher learning within the educational structure of the school. The spiritual emphasis was intended to "create a spiritual atmosphere where young people could discover themselves and find God."[217] The college's spiritual structure became central to Wiley's approach to the education.

Chapel and a Spiritual Environment

For some NNC students, their most significant spiritual experiences occurred during the daily chapel services. Fairy S. Chism described her experience in chapel every Tuesday and Wednesday:

"Frequently President Wiley gives practical talks which strike at the fundamentals of holy living. These talks will never be forgotten; and their influence on our lives will be as undying as life itself."[218]

Wiley's lectures on the biblical book of Job and his view of entire sanctification were published in the Nazarene Messenger.[219] Thursday was known as Students' Days when a student preached the chapel sermon. A student noted that "it is unusual that one [of these days] should slip by without someone finding Jesus."[220] Friday was reserved for prayer and "waiting on the Lord." In a letter to a former student Esther Carson Winans, Wiley wrote about the significance of Friday's prayer service:

This is our day for prayer, - we still keep up our custom of coming to the altar on Friday for special prayer, and we have had remarkable seasons of waiting upon God. Am intending [to] ask the students to remember you and the work of God in Peru, and reading portions of your letters to them. They are always delighted to hear from 'their missionaries.' Pardon this brief note. May the Lord give you both physical and spiritual strength, and guide you in all your ways.[221]

For Wiley and his students, the daily chapel services, being discontinued in other colleges and universities,[222] remained a source of community-building and spiritual support for the educational structure of students and alumni.

The Constituency and a Spiritual Environment

The school advertised its emotionally-charged spirituality. An early edition of the Nazarene Messenger, the college newsletter, stated that spiritual encouragement was more influential "for good than days of grinding over musty books."[223] A 1938 history of NNC describes several stories of dramatic spiritual experiences.[224] One story reported that a female student was healed after being diagnosed with tuberculosis. The dining hall turned into a regular place of worship during evening devotions. The basement of the Administration Building formed a gathering place for some of the male students to pray.[225] Chapel speakers were often interrupted by students wanting to describe their latest religious experience.[226] Parents, pastors, financial donors, and other constituents were well-informed of the spiritual activity on campus.

The Faculty and a Spiritual Environment

Fervent spirituality created, in the opinion of its constituents, an ideal environment for the students. Riley describes a Nazarene Board of Education report in 1921 that suggested limitations for athletic sports and drama unless these activities "minister to the spiritual advancement of students." [227] Student activities needed to have a spiritual end, but the most important conveyors of that spiritual environment were thought to be the faculty members themselves.

In a Nazarene Messenger article, Wiley offered a "picture of ideal college society" based on Psalms. 55:13-14: "But thou, a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance; We took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in company." This verse depicts an ideal Nazarene college teacher. Wiley further comments that "true education can be effected only by personal means. The character of the men and women who compose the faculty is the strongest single force of education."[228] These statements were to be a challenge to faculty, an encouragement to parents, and a recruiting tool for new faculty. It should be noted that this article was published during a time of financial hardship. Wiley may have been trying to encourage faculty members to stay with the college when salaries were meager.

Stringent Discipline in a Spiritual Environment

The 1919 Oasis student yearbook portrayed student life on campus. Each morning a daily prayer time was followed by a quiet hour. The students' rooms were inspected each morning for "cleanliness in both inner and outward life." But students were asked to not study on Friday nights-to spend at least one evening away from the rigors of academic work. According to a former student, "stringent discipline" was considered an accepted part of student life.[229]

A senior student Prescott Beals writing in the yearbook explained the personal responsibility and discipline expected of NNC students.[230] Physical education is not competitive, but for mutual exercise. "Dancing, card-playing, and theater going" are "strictly tabooed." Social manners are taught in the dining hall so that "a student may not feel himself a misfit among cultured people." Intellectually, the student with a philosophical tendency should not fear "to find at the end of his college course that his faith in God has been shipwrecked." As for spiritual living, a holiness college education gives a student a "well rounded, symmetrical character" in which the "Holy Ghost is honored by teacher and student, where every class is opened by prayer, where the daily chapel services are times of refreshing as well as of salvation." Fifty-five years later, Beals compared NNC students of the mid-1970's with his former classmates. Today's students "are interested in learning where as it seemed to be years ago they seemed to be giddish, and they almost had to have strict discipline to make them learn much."[231]

Ross Price, a former NNC student, later noted that students not striving toward the social behavior standards of NNC could be dismissed.[232] Former students James Jackson and C. S. Cowles also highlighted the fact that some students who broke the campus rules repeatedly were expelled from campus by semester's end.[233] The Point Loma Nazarene University still has a copy of a booklet entitled "Pasadena College Standards" written during Wiley's tenure there. It stated that "students who flagrantly or persistently violate these standards will be allowed to withdraw without formal charges." Wiley possibly wrote these standards and even acted as the disciplinarian on campus.[234] Wiley's grandfather J. W. Ward was a strict social reformer for the United Brethren Church, especially in the area of temperance.[235] Wiley may have gathered his passion for social holiness and reform from Ward.

The learning environment at NNC and Wiley's leadership there reflected the 19th century notions of "en loco parentis." Colleges became a nurturing ground for pre-adults. The spiritual side of nurturing reflects the tendency to categorize Nazarene college students as spiritual babes still maturing into responsible adult Christians. Phineas Bresee, one of Wiley's mentors, borrowed maternal language to describe the ideal college environment: "The very atmosphere of our halls and our lecture rooms is to be pregnant with the divine glory and heavenly presence."[236] Wiley intended to follow this ideal to create a spiritual environment through his leadership on the NNC campus. Meanwhile, students were being readied to use their college education outside the protective environment of the college campus.

The Missionary School

Wiley desired to make NNC into a training ground for Nazarene missionaries. The work of the college, in Wiley's mind, was "inseparable from missionary work." On this point, Wiley related a story concerning his mentor Bresee.[237] Wiley wrote:

It seems that [Bresee] desired to make an address on education in one of the holiness camp meetings, but was refused the privilege. He was told however that he might speak on missions and laughingly reported the matter as follows: -- 'I began my missionary address,' he said, "with this introduction: 'First, there is great need of missionary work; Secondly we must have trained men and women to carry on this great work; Thirdly, we must have schools in which to train our workers; and then proceeded to deliver my educational address.'

Mission work and education were considered synonymous among early leaders in Nazarene higher education.

Wiley intended to make NNC into a school committed to Nazarene missionary work. He did so by establishing mission bands. Mission bands were student-led groups named after particular continents like South American, India, and Africa. Students would learn about these cultures, meet regularly to pray about these world areas, conduct chapel services, and promote the cause of missionary work. Wiley also invited Dr. Thomas E. Magnum to begin the Missionary Sanitarium and Institute, a medical clinic and school to train medical missionaries.[238] By 1922, at least thirteen alumni were serving as missionaries in places like South Africa, China, and India. [239] An article in the Nazarene Messenger stated, "How interesting the work of missions becomes [to students] when a classmate is in India, another in Peru and still others in Japan, China, and Africa."[240] There is only one indication that readily suggests a reason for his keen interest in other countries or cultures. Grace Ramquist noted that Wiley's curiosity was first piqued by the presence of Chinese immigrants at the train depot in Sacramento when Wiley and family moved to California.[241] Other than this incident, no other evidence explains Wiley's commitment to international mission work other than the general evangelistic thrust of the holiness movement.

Wiley corresponded regularly with the former NNC students working in other countries. The college president wrote to missionaries every Sunday morning prior to attending Sunday School and morning worship services.[242] Through letter writing, Wiley stayed in contact to every NNC-trained missionary every two weeks out of a "religious duty."[243] Wiley's correspondence with Nazarene missionaries who studied at NNC included Esther Carson-Winans, Louise Robinson-Chapman, and Faith Chism.

Esther Carson

Esther Carson was pictured as one of three outgoing missionaries in the 1918 Oasis.[244] Carson studied with Wiley at Pasadena College. She contemplated graduate studies, when Wiley invited her to be a Spanish instructor at NNC.[245] Before getting situated at NNC, Carson was assigned as a Nazarene missionary to Peru. Carson's correspondence from South America was hand-written, and she shared often about personal matters. One letter in particular conveys the impact Wiley had on this young student and missionary. Carson wrote, "I remember one such [difficult] time especially when God, in your whole personality seemed to stand before me, as if you were present, and gave me encouragement when for the moment things had been almost too much for me."[246] Carson offers news about what it is like to teach children from another culture, enter a debate with a Roman Catholic priest about the legitimacy of her mission work, endure a beating from local villagers, and care for a child of another missionary who died in childbirth (within seven months the child died too). This information was very personal and, at times, painful. Yet Carson openly conveys her concerns describing awful stories in these letters, "since you [Wiley] wanted me to write freely to you."[247] The young missionary obviously respected and trusted Wiley enough to share such personal information. Eventually, the missionaries in Peru received a mimeograph machine and Carson's letters became more generic and provided church-related news and not much on personal matters.

Louise Robinson

Louise Robinson wrote a letter to her former professor and president from a hut in South Africa. Dealing with a variety of cross-cultural challenges, she confides, "I am so glad for my college work.I believe too that Jesus can use [a person] much more [with a college education]."[248] When her college friend, Fairy Chism arrived in Africa seven years later, she discovered Robinson as the president of a ministerial school with 83 students, pastor of a church with 200 members, and a farmer of 50 acres.[249] Robinson's education with Wiley imbued in her a dedication to educate the people as well as evangelize them. After two decades in Africa, Robinson returned to the United States and wrote several books about Africa and missionary work, traveled widely as a prominent speaker at churches and conventions, and later married J. B. Chapman, a Nazarene General Superintendent.[250]

While sitting on top of unpacked boxes, Robinson batted away gnats and wrote letters back to home to Wiley. During their college years she and Chism wanted to "show people [especially women] could accomplish things when the Lord called them to do it."[251] When Robinson celebrated her 100th birthday in 1992, she was present at the establishment of the Louise Robinson Chapman Scholarship at the Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs, Colorado for women ministerial students, especially those sensing a call to mission work.[252] Robinson's career alone could serve as an encouragement to women entering a challenging and uncharted life path.

Fairy Chism

Fairy Chism graduated from NNC with a major in sociology and psychology.[253] She wanted to be a school teacher in the United States, but instead served as a missionary for 20 years (1928 to 1948) in Africa only returning the the U. S. for one two-year furlough. Although Chism early was "prejudiced against women preachers," she was eventually sought after to speak in churches during her college years. Chism's pastor at Nampa First Church of the Nazarene, J.T. Little, gave a local preacher's license to her during her last year of college.[254] After graduation, she ministered in two churches in Oregon for five years in the mountain towns of Halfway and Baker. In 1923, H.F. Reynolds ordained her as an elder in the Church of the Nazarene. The 1928 General Assembly assigned her as a missionary to Africa to work with Louise Robinson.[255] In 1940, when Robinson left Africa, Chism inherited full responsibility for a missionary station and 20 outstations in Swaziland.[256] She later preached as a traveling evangelist when she returned to the United States.

Chism admits "that her real major" was studying and modeling the lifestyle and teachings of Wiley her professor. His life profoundly affected her during school years; and throughout her life when she wanted a definition of holiness, other than scriptural, she says: 'Holiness is Dr. Wiley.'"[257] Regardless of how one defines holiness, textbooks could not convey what holiness was without the personal example of someone who lived that kind of lifestyle. Wiley's legacy was conveyed through his continuing influence on students even more than through his books, writings, or academic responsibilities. Wiley expected to have an educational impact on his students. He also expected the same of the teachers who taught at his college.

Criteria for NNC Teachers

To teach at NNC was supposed to be a calling. Wiley wrote early in his presidency that no sacrifice is to great for the highest calling of "Christian education of men and women."[258] The Oasis student yearbook describes the selection of faculty according to two standards: "spiritual life and educational efficiency." Furthermore, the writer adds, "The men and women, therefore, who compose our faculty are called of God to the ministry of teaching in the same well-defined sense that the pastors of our churches are called to the ministry of preaching."[259] The prerequisites for teaching could be found on the teaching application.

The NNC Teacher's Application form asks sixteen questions to the potential college teacher. The first three asked for general information. Questions four through eight ask the applicants to describe their teaching experiences and completed educational experience including graduate work. Questions nine through twelve require the applicants to respond to direct questions regarding their personal spirituality. For instance,

When were you converted? When were you sanctified wholly? And do you know enjoy this experience? Are you in sympathy with a radical and aggressive type of holiness work?.Will you give yourself to the religious work and spiritual life of the college, faithfully attending the chapel and other religious services unless hindered by providential circumstances?[260]

Wiley believed that the spiritual and educational experience of students should be complementary. The Oasis suggested the faculty's role be "a high spiritual standard" and "should not detract from but further the status of the educational work."[261] The last question summarizes what Wiley wanted to know about potential faculty: "Do you intend to make teaching a life profession?"[262] Teaching was viewed as a calling and commitment, especially when the college entered severe financial straits.

One of the last issues of the Nazarene Messenger during Wiley's tenure provides an apt description what NNC professors experienced. Teachers had to:

work with insufficient funds, without equipment, without recognition, and without constituency, and build up a work to the present status and proportions-this could not be accomplished without constant labor and sacrifice under the divine blessing.[263]

Wiley vented his frustration at not meeting the needs of the professors. Wiley wrote in the Nazarene Messenger only three years later:

With such an opportunity for service, why are our colleges struggling with debt, our professors limited in books and equipment, and our administrators all but disheartened? Is there any answer to this question other than that given by our Master, --'the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light?' Doubtless the heart of Jesus was deeply grieved over this condition of affairs, and our fear is, that only when those now bearing the burden have broken under the load, will the people be aroused to see the importance of this work. If there was ever a time for real prayer and supplication in regard to our educational work, that time is now.[264]

Only within this context of inadequate resources and deep spiritual commitment can the heavy teaching load of Wiley and his faculty be fully appreciated.

Wiley the College Teacher

During Wiley's NNC years, he also taught a regular schedule of classes. In his first year in Nampa, Wiley taught courses entitled History of Philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophical Bases of Theism, Medieval Philosophy, Hebrew Wisdom Literature, Psychology of Religion, and Social Psychology.[265] By 1922, Wiley decreased his total amount of hours taught, yet still maintained four classes per school year on theological and philosophical subjects.[266] Wiley also demanded much from his students. To earn an "A" for a course, a student needed to read a minimum of 1,000 pages of collateral reading.[267]

Content may have dominated his classes, but Wiley did not lose his students' attention through inadequate methodology. One former student remembers that Wiley sometimes veered from his lecture notes to engage students in dialogue.[268] Two of Wiley's most memorable phrases best summarized his teaching method. The Oasis of 1922 shared these common quotations: "'We are getting on now' and 'I'll tell you, it's just like this.'"[269] The first phrase captures his energy in light of his discourse with students. The second phrase denotes Wiley's intention to teach the content, and not allow discussion to devolve into a mess of theological misinterpretation. Wiley the teacher "allowed you to think for yourself, but he could probe your 'think-muscle' with his questions."[270]

C. S. Cowles, currently teaching at Northwest Nazarene University, recalled his only class with Wiley in an interview. Cowles was in his first year of graduate studies at Pasadena Nazarene College in 1956-57. Wiley was teaching theology classes as president emeritus at the time. Cowles remembered Wiley's presence in the classroom:

He was one of the most scintillating, energetic teachers I've ever had in the classroom. Even in his mid-80s [Wiley would have been 79 or 80 during this school year], he never sat down. He never stood very long in one place. He moved about. He had a piece of chalk in his hands and he was always writing on the board, just writing stuff and drawing pictures and lines and connecting names and dates and stuff and it just flowed out of him. And I was far more enamored with him than I was with whatever he was talking about, most of which I'm sure I couldn't remember if my life depended on it.[271]

Cowles, however, spoke later in the interview about theological schemes that he first learned from Wiley four decades ago. Wiley's energy brought copious lecture notes off of the page and into the students' imagination and life.

Most of Wiley's lectures have been preserved at the Point Loma Nazarene University Archives. Wiley's 1912 class "The Psychology of Religion" provided an early example. [272] The lecture notes were intertwined with graphs, charts, and other graphic organizers. A large sidebar was given for student notations and occasional highlights from the lectures. These notes were mimegraphed and distributed to students much like a textbook.[273] The notes were not recited by Wiley, however, but presented in a way that engaged the students. One NNC student notes that "Dr. Wiley is very careful to teach simply, and to carefully explain all principles, for he tells us, 'One can never overestimate the ignorance of his audience.'"[274] Overcoming the "ignorance of the audience," however, could be interpreted as a Wiley's depiction of students' inferior capabilities. In this light, the remark could be seen as snide and belittling. On the other hand, this remark may refer to Wiley's sense of his own responsibility to engage students in meaningful dialogue without neglecting weighty content. The second interpretation is consistent with the flavor of Wiley's writings and student recollections.

Unlike the growing influence of Christian Fundamentalism,[275] Wiley's course content brought into his classroom both historical theology and "modern" science. Wiley's course on the "Psychology of Religion" has two lectures entitled, "The Theory of Attention in the History of Sin" and "The Psychology of Conversion."[276] Wiley uses the theory of the attention to describe the progression of sin from temptation to transgression. When a person's attention is averted to that which is good, the probabilities of sinning lessened, and vice versa. Psychology's role in Christian theological belief is made overt. Wiley wrote, the "introduction of Christ into the motive life [of a person's soul, or psyche] is an event of large psychological possibility.[that] remains in the [person after conversion] sending pulses of power through his whole being."[277] The union of science and theology was not lost to Wiley's students. One student thanked Wiley for averting their fear of "philosophy and science," because this person "left NNC with a sincere respect for the philosophies of others, with a regard for scientific research, and with a faith steadfast and sure which all the doubts of a materialistic age cannot overthrow."[278]

Wiley's students expressed their gratitude for their president and professor throughout his career. The students routinely gathered at the Wiley home to recognize his birthday on November 15 and the anniversary of his marriage to Alice on November 8.[279] Upon his resignation, his students presented a well-crafted wristwatch inscribed with "H. Orton Wiley, from the students of N.N.C." Ross Price found this gift among Wiley's personal items upon his death.[280] The wristwatch, a gift from his students, remains in the Wiley Collection at the Point Loma Nazarene University Archives.

Teachers Mentored by Wiley

Several students followed into Wiley's career track into college teaching and administration. Floyd W. Nease graduated in 1917 in the first class of four-year college graduates from NNC. Of the five students, two were women and three were men. Nease eventually became president of Eastern Nazarene College in Wollaston, Massachusetts.[281] Nease was preceded by Fred J. Shields who was a student of Wiley's in Pasadena and, for a short time, a professor at Nampa. Ross Price was a student of Wiley's during the last years of his tenure at NNC, and later Dean of the Graduate School of Religion at Pasadena Nazarene College. Olive Winchester was a classmate of Wiley's at the Pacific Theological Seminary, and later served as professor of Biblical literature and Vice-President in Nampa and Pasadena. Wiley maintained significant collegial relationships and personal friendships with all of them.

Fred J. Shields

Fred Shields graduated from the Bible Department of Nazarene University in Pasadena. He later entered and graduated from the College of Liberal Arts, receiving his education, in part, from Wiley, professor, dean, and later president. When Wiley arrived on campus in 1917, one of his first actions as president was to hire Shields as the new professor of theology.[282] Shields was later joined by Esther Carson, another Nazarene University graduate, to become a faculty member at NNC.[283]

Shields was remembered for offering a course in "sermonizing." The three-year course involved mainly practical theology. As one student put it, "All knowing comes by doing; and while textbooks are concerned with the message we are to give to the world, it is in the sermonizing class that practical experience in preaching and leading meetings is secured."[284] Shields practical bent was characteristic of Wiley's protégés in college teaching.

Shields spent the summer of 1919 doing doctoral work in philosophy at the University of Chicago.[285] True to his practical leanings, he also served as pastor to a Nazarene church in the Chicago area. At the end of the next school year, Shields was elected as president of Eastern Nazarene College (ENC). It was during his presidency from 1918 to 1923 that he moved the campus from Rhode Island to Wollaston, Massachusetts, it's current location.[286] While in the Boston area, Shields was "closely associated" with Harvard University in the fields of psychology and biblical literature.[287] Shields returned to work with Wiley at Pasadena before going back to ENC. Shortly after retirement, he died from complications of a stroke while preaching a Sunday morning sermon.[288] Wiley performed the funeral in Pasadena, California. Their collegial relationship is confirmed by Wiley's words at the funeral, "for about forty-four years we have lived together in close fellowship."[289] Their fellowship consisted of helping two colleges survive difficult financial times-Wiley at NNC and Shields at Eastern Nazarene College-and a commitment to the preaching ministry.

Ross Price

Ross Price first met Wiley as a freshman at NNC. Price later became a close associate of Wiley's at Pasadena.[290] He wrote two books about Wiley and edited two compilations of Wiley's sermons.[291] Price sometimes eulogized Wiley when he wrote about him. In a description of his mentor, Price wrote, "he towered among us as a mountain monument of what God's grace can do for a man whose mind is keen, whose heart is warm, and whose vision grasps realities supreme."[292] The first meeting between teacher Wiley and student Price illuminates the reason for such affectionate words. Price first met Wiley as just another freshmen at NNC. Here is Price's depiction of that first interaction.

I first met H. Orton Wiley in November of 1927, when one day on business in Nampa, Idaho, he took time to come down into the heating plant of Northwest Nazarene College where I, as a freshman and 'rookie fireman,' was working. My clothing was soiled with ashes and coal, but he shook my callused hand and greeted me warmly. Little did I realize how providential a meeting it was for me. It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship that became increasingly rich in mutual understanding and fellowship, until the day I watched him breathe his last, closed his steel-grey eyes, and folded those hands, that had typed out thousands of pages of notes for his students, over his silent form.[293]

Price was the only friend of the family with Wiley when he died in 1961.[294]

Ross Price followed Wiley as the Dean of the Graduate School of Religion. Reflecting his own personal experience, Price called Wiley a "friend of every student."[295] For Price, that phrase summarized his teacher-student relationship with Wiley--a mentor and friend.

Olive Winchester

Olive Winchester was Wiley's classmate at the Pacific Theological Seminary (which later became the Pacific School of Religion (PSR)). They both graduated with their master's degrees on May 3, 1917.[296] Winchester's college education began at Radcliffe College in Massachusetts from which she graduated cum laude in 1902. She majored in Semitic languages and history. She then traveled to Scotland where she was the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Divinity.[297] Later, after coming to NNC, Winchester also became the first woman to earn a Doctorate of Theology at Drew University, a Methodist school in New Jersey[298].

She began her ministry in preaching engagements in New England and across the ocean in Scotland. Martha Curry, an early Nazarene evangelist, invited Winchester to preach in revival meetings and raise funds for the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute in Rhode Island.[299] This small school eventually moved to Wollaston, Massachusetts and became Eastern Nazarene College. At some point, she moved westward to attend PSR. She earned an "A" average with 48 hours of theology with John W. Buckham.[300] Her academic interests resided in biblical languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.[301] In fact, a promotional piece written about NNC faculty remarked, "She also teaches Greek and Hebrew languages for pastime."[302]

Winchester funded her studies with an inheritance from her great-uncle Oliver Winchester, owner of the Winchester Rifle Company.[303] She helped fund the education of her students as well. When called upon, Winchester paid the salaries of college professors and selections for the college library.[304] She even lent Wiley the funds necessary to build his home during the difficult years in Nampa. When the school could not cover the loan, Winchester sued Wiley in hopes that the school would not default on the loan. Since the college could not pay for the loan, Wiley and Winchester agreed to donate the house to the school.[305] Winchester could also raise funds. J. A. Clayville heard Winchester speak at Ustick Nazarene church. The person was motivated by her message about Nazarene higher education and gave a $100 to the school. The donation came from someone who did not consider himself or herself a church member or even a believer in the Christian faith.[306]

Wiley asked Winchester to come to NNC. She became the professor of biblical literature, academic dean, and vice-president. She rejected the fundamentalist notion of premillenialism, but held to the instantaneousness of entire sanctification.[307] The Oasis of 1919, introducing the new professor, recognized her as "an authority in Biblical subjects and has a language preparation for exegetical work unexcelled by any one in our movement"[308] Beyond technical skill, Winchester believed that biblical interpretation begins in "spiritual experience" and is enhanced by "acquired"' knowledge from the liberal arts and sciences.[309]

Winchester was a demanding college teacher. For a three-hour course, she required each student to build an index card file of well-researched answers to questions outlined in the syllabus. A 25-page thesis paper and three book reports were additional requirements for students. One of her students wrote that "the student always felt he [or she] had earned whatever grade he [or she] made for the course."[310] Her classroom style combined proper formality with a boisterous sense of humor. She would address students as "Mr. Jones" or "Miss Smith." Students readily recalled Winchester's "hearty laugh pointedly punctuated with, 'and so forth.'"[311]

In 1935, Winchester again joined Wiley when she became Dean of the Graduate School of Religion at Pasadena Nazarene College.[312] Ten years later, she died suddenly on February 15, 1947 at 67 years of age, one week after being diagnosed with cancer. Wiley wrote about her three days following her death. He wrote, "We have worked together in educational work for 31 years and I shall miss her very much."[313] Wiley was not a mentor as much as a colleague to Winchester. However, he played a role in allowing women to become visible role models for female and male students in Nazarene higher education.[314] Rebecca Laird wrote about Winchester's contribution to Nazarene higher education: "In an era when women's roles were highly defined.women [like Winchester] exemplify how compelling an inner sense of calling can be when combined with powerful gifts."[315] During the early 20th century, Wiley encouraged women like Winchester to move into leadership roles that were not traditionally held by women.

Student-Faculty Interaction in a Spiritual Environment

College teachers at NNC participated in non-academic pursuits with the students. Winchester used to sponsor the Senior Sneak for a rugged weekend in the sagebrush hills.[316] Wiley and Winchester spoke at the 1925 Junior-Senior Banquet held in Wiley's residence on campus.[317] The school choirs sang on the Boise radio station KFAU. They performed a mixture of religious and popular tunes, such as "Don't You Cry My Honey" and "Mista Booga Man."[318] Physical exercise, or "culture," took place on alternating mornings led by the anatomy professor. NNC offered a well-rounded educational experience.

Elsie Hazelwood wrote a letter to "Dear Doctor Wiley" from the Assiniboine Reservation in Montana. She wanted to relay her gratitude for the medical training she received. She was primarily a teacher, but she helped a Native American child through a bout with pneumonia, which established the community's trust in her.[319] Marciano Encarnacion, a NNC graduate, wrote a letter from the Philippine Islands to his alma mater: "This college is small before the eyes of men but I know that it is great before the eyes of God and His precious children."[320] A 1925 graduate wrote "Some Last Words by A Senior" about his experience at NNC. This unidentified NNC senior wondered: "Am I prepared? Just how much has my college education done in fitting me for life?" The writer responded to the rhetorical question: "A danger for every college student is . . . [to] blindly and unquestionably accept solutions and answers to life's problems [from] . . . text books, from professors, from associates, rather than independently work them out for himself [or herself]." This student was grateful for NNC's "'experimental religion.'" This student believed,

I have actually experienced the efficacy of the religion of Jesus Christ. My faith has been augmented and clinched by practical results in my own life.I am thankful that I have found a reasonable basis for my religion.I violate no principle of good scholarship in accepting Christ's conclusions regarding the fundamentals of life.[321]

Students appreciated the spiritual environment, missionary focus, practical experience, and college teachers who also served as mentors that buttressed a college education in this small school in the Snake River valley. Wiley contributed to students' personal growth and professional readiness during the decade that he served as president and professor at Northwest Nazarene College.

Wiley's Days Well Spent in Nampa

H. Orton Wiley moved to Nampa, Idaho in the midst of intense political strife in Pasadena. The political and theological struggles turned to more practical concerns of dealing with a lack of funds and building a solid faculty. Wiley spent ten years at NNC teaching students to educate character as well as gain skills to go beyond the small Idaho town to make a difference the world.

The Morning Watch

By H. Orton Wiley

Originally published in the Nazarene Messenger, the Official Bulletin of

Northwest Nazarene College , October 1922

In the Orient there is a relationship between teacher and pupil which is peculiarly close and sacred. The pupil wholly submits himself to the teacher as one who knows and from whom he would learn. In Christ's time, the multitude gave Him the title of "Rabbi" or "teacher." Many of the scribes and Pharisees who had struggled to attain this distinction openly protested, but the people persisted in applying the title to Him, for He taught them as "one having authority and not the scribes." His was a note of finality which issued from perfect experience and its deep authoritative tone compelled a recognition which was never given to the Jewish teachers who droned out traditions in a manner which they considered orthodox.

Christ as Our Teacher

We dishonor Christ when we regard Him as an impersonal Presence. He is the great Teacher. True it is that He is not limited to time and space as we are, but He is a Person and craves a personal appointment with all who desire His instruction.

Jesus commanded His disciples to go "into all the world and make 'learners' of all nations." The true Christian will ever take the place of a "learner." Men will travel for thousands of miles at great expense; they will submit to privation, hardship and uncongenial surroundings in order to avail themselves of the instruction of a great master. Jesus is the Great Teacher, -why should we not place ourselves under His tuition in order to learn from Him, the things which are fundamental to true success?

The Importance of This Program

When through the revelation of the Spirit, the Christian realizes that the Master is alive and accessible, the possibilities of such a course of study with Him, becomes a matter of supreme importance. The enthroned Christ becomes the great treasure house, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and the Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of Truth to conduct us into ever deepening channels of heavenly wisdom. Then it is that the devout soul, seeks to meet Him alone, when there are least interruptions, and when the mind is clearest, to receive and retain the wonderful words of wisdom which fall from the lips of Him who spake as never man spake.

The Morning Watch

The mind is clearest and most alert in the morning hour. It is then that men do their best thinking. This early hour should at any sacrifice be secured for the instruction of the great Teacher. It is the Master's hour and should be spent in His presence for personal edification.

The morning watch, or the "quiet hour" as it is usually termed in our colleges, must not be kept in a desultory manner. Laziness and carelessness are great enemies not only to intellectual attainments, but to spiritual progress. One never expects to make much progress studying while laying in bed, or dozing between paragraphs, or studying in an aimless or listless manner. Yet many people expect to make spiritual progress by using such fruitless methods as this. It would not be tolerated by an earthly teacher; it is an affront to the Master.

In the Orient

John R. Mott, the great student leader, tells of his visit to the Orient in the following words: "On our recent journey around the world we were deeply impressed by the large numbers of young men and women who entered into the covenant to keep the morning watch. All the men and women who have gone out from the universities of America and Britain to lead the Christian movements among the student of India faithfully observe this watch. In Ceylon we were impressed not so much by the beautiful and luxuriant tropical vegetation, nor by the heathen shrines and temples, as by the sight which greeted our eyes very early one morning of Tamil students walking under the palms with open Bibles in their hands, and their lips moving in silent prayer. We visited one college in the Levant where, according to the last report, over two hundred boys and young men keep the morning watch. We knew of no college in Christian lands of which this could be said. There are ten great student movements in the World Student Christian Federation, but that of China is the only one of them of which we could say last year that practically all of its active members began the day with Bible study and prayer. It was while visiting a college, not in America, or England, or Scandinavia, but in Japan, that we were awakened over an hour before daybreak, and taken through the city, across the valley and to the crest of the famous Flowery Hill, to meet with the members of the Christian Association of that institution for special prayer, as was their custom."

A Practical Question

If such is the value of the "morning watch" or "the quiet hour" why should we not at any sacrifice arrange to give the first hour of the morning to a personal appointment with the Great Teacher? Why should we not come to religiously regard the early hour of the day as the Master's Hour?"

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